Axar Patel grabbed the stumps and teed off before he was lost in an army of blue shirts piling excitedly on him. Just moments ago, he looked frazzled, when Chamika Karunaratne had heaved him for a six that had reduced the target to just five off three balls. But Axar would leak just two more runs to help India clinch the first of the three-match T20I series by two runs, a slow-burning thriller that caught fire at the end.
No matter what, it’s the end that is always remembered, the last over tattooed forever in your mind, irrespective of how good the start was or how middling the middle overs were. Axar, creditably, was at the end, during India’s batting as well as bowling. His 20-ball 31 runs, and the 68-run stand with Deepak Hooda, propelled India to a competitive 162; his smart bowling in the last over helped India defend the total, albeit nervously. Such impactful batting should push him for a spot of permanence even when Ravindra Jadeja returns, and even though his bowling on the night was wayward, he made amends in the last over.
But it’s the start they gave that made the end possible. As influential Axar was, the victory owed much to the pace trio of Hardik Pandya, Umran Malik and Shivam Mavi, whose bowling in the power-play, conceding just 35 runs, piling on the pressure and picking up two wickets, set the match up, and eventually proved an effort worth its weight in gold in the final assessment. When India began their defence, on a surface wherein Sri Lanka spinners turned the ball and made it grip off the surface, it seemed that their India counterparts would be the usual suspects to win them the match. In the end, they turned out to be side-shows, but for Axar’s last over.
So many fast bowlers have flown in and out of the team in the last one year—in the pre T20 World Cup testing to post tournament rest and churn—that it’s at times difficult to nail down who indeed are the first-choice options. But this much is certain—in a full strength playing eleven, Pandya alone would have started, though it’s unlikely that he bowled three overs upfront with the new ball, nearly bowling himself out in the power-play overs. But his three thrifty overs that leaked just 12 runs, 18 balls of bark and bite, set the tone for India’s defence of 162 runs.
Unsurprisingly, in the absence of frontline pacers, Pandya took the new ball. He is often thrust with the middle and death over duties, where he has evolved into a back-of-length operator. But his reacquaintance with the new-ball was smooth. He bowled a fraction fuller than he usually does, purchased seam movement both ways and hassled batsmen with both pace and bounce. He was operating in a zone closer to peak Pandya that makes him such a potent proposition and escalates India’s threat by a few notches. He impressively shepherded the inexperienced pair of Mavi and Malik too.
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